Palmieri: City workers need more active role

Wednesday

Nov 30, 2011 at 12:01 AMNov 30, 2011 at 1:44 PM

Mayor-elect Robert Palmieri knows the tremendous financial challenges facing the city. That’s why he believes a more proactive approach from city employees will be one of the keys to his administration.

That’s why he believes a more proactive approach from city employees will be one of the keys to his administration.

Police officers enforcing the law against people walking in the street, economic development employees engaging businesses threatened by the North-South Arterial project, lawyers more actively enforcing the nuisance abatement laws – all will improve the conditions for businesses and residents, he said.

“It’s up to the city to provide the service,” Palmieri said. “We want you to invest. We want you to stay.”

Palmieri, 60, a Democrat, will take over at the beginning of the year from current Mayor David Roefaro, also a Democrat, who did not seek re-election.

Palmieri sat down with the O-D editorial board Wednesday for a discussion that ranged from the James Street public safety center to the proposed North-South Arterial project.

Public safety

Palmieri said he has directed police chief Mark Williams to formulate a second unit that will engage in “proactive policing.” He said the only unit that currently does so is the special operations unit, which typically works at night.

Palmieri said he will leave the details to the police administration but that no extra officers will be hired. He said officers in typical patrols are too inundated with calls to make an active difference in neighborhood issues.

“Whether it’s going undercover or door-to-door, I’m going to leave it up to them,” Palmieri said.

Palmieri said the James Street public safety center will be refocused to a community outreach facility in coordination with the Utica City School District and Oneida County. He said after-school and adult-learning programs are possible there.

And he said he will not hire someone into the public safety commissioner position, which is occupied by Daniel LaBella. Palmieri, who previously served as the city’s Weed and Seed coordinator and deputy public safety commissioner, said he believes he has the expertise to do the function on his own.

Finances

Palmieri’s first big test as mayor will be the city budget, which must be passed by March. He said he believes the city could be facing a deficit, and must deal with a state-imposed 2 percent property tax cap and dwindling reserve funds.

Palmieri reiterated the plans first stated in his campaign to ask state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office to audit the city’s finances.

“We need a direction of where we are and where we want to go on policies and procedures and efficiencies,” Palmieri said.

Three city unions — representing the police, fire and public works personnel — all have expired contracts, and Palmieri said he will sit down with them and try to work out new deals.

Generally, Palmieri said he will seek endeavors that do not cost taxpayers large sums of money, such as a campaign to spruce up downtown.

He said he will pursue a settlement with Kunkel Ambulance on the municipal ambulance service, which is in state courts. City finance officials have said the service nets hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in revenue.

Economic development

Palmieri stressed that major developments at Harbor Point in North Utica will have to wait at least several years until the environmental cleanup there is complete and the state transfers Inner Harbor land to the city’s control.

He said he will hire an urban and economic development commissioner, the position in which Brian Thomas is serving. Thomas is expected to be transferred back to his urban planning director position before Roefaro leaves office.

He said he also will seek closer relations with Mohawk Valley EDGE.

The city currently has $5 million in state money for downtown parking, which Roefaro long-planned to use for a parking garage before determining that would be too expensive. Palmieri said he would come up with a parking plan to support downtown buildings, which he said are poised to benefit from the planned nanotechnology complex at SUNYIT.

He also said that while he understands the concerns from some officials and community members over the state’s proposed $62 million North-South Arterial project, he believes it will benefit the region.

“Those are the professionals,” he said of the state Department of Transportation. “Those are the engineers and planners. You’ve got to have confidence in them.”

Palmieri said he might pull back on the city’s paving program and focus more on road maintenance in an attempt to help as many city residents as possible.

He also pledged a better performance by city crews in snow plowing this year. He said he’s been assured that all of the equipment, some of which reportedly broke down last year, is in working order.

“I won’t tolerate it,” he said of last winter’s snow-plowing concerns.